The main story from the 41 elections for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) was the low turnout at around 15% – and as low as 11.6% in Staffordshire. Voters appeared neither to know nor to care about the role.

PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka said the low turnouts, “should sound the death knell for the ludicrously shrill cries from some quarters of the Tory Party and their supporters for greater restrictions on trade union ballots.”

Sussex LRC backed candidate Godfrey Daniel was beaten into second place by his Tory opponent 79,462 to 55,729 votes for Sussex PCC. Labour’s Daniel won in Hastings, Brighton and Crawley but couldn’t quite muster a county-wide majority.

Labour’s most high-profile candidate, John Prescott, was narrowly defeated for Humberside

There were however Labour victories in Bedfordshire, Cleveland, Derbyshire, Durham, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Northumbria, Nottinghamshire, South Wales, South Yorkshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire.